


Killbot Phantasm I

by Inkyrius



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Video & Computer Games, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-16 17:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11257533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkyrius/pseuds/Inkyrius
Summary: Pidge’s eyes gleamed in the slightly unnerving way that meant that she was pleased with her own cleverness and wanted you to be too. “I finally got that video game Lance and I bought working! I was just going to test it out before I let him know, but I may have gotten a little distracted. But since you’re here, do you want to see it?”





	Killbot Phantasm I

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Itsjez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itsjez/gifts).



It was a sad fact of life aboard the Castle of Lions that not hearing explosions or shouting from Pidge’s lab was more concerning than hearing them. So when Allura hadn’t heard them for several days, she felt the need to intervene. Either something horrible had happened to Pidge, or she was plotting how best to inflict something horrible on someone else.

Her room was thankfully more normal. The muffled cacophony of shouts and beeps coming through the door seemed to suggest that she hadn’t died, at least. Allura was tempted to leave it there, but curiosity drove her to knock.

Pidge swore. The sounds stopped, and shortly thereafter the door swung open to reveal a flustered Pidge. “Oh, hey Allura!” she said. “Am I missing paladin training or something? Because if not, I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“Just checking in on you.” Allura craned her neck in an attempt to figure out what had been creating such a racket. “What were you doing in here?”

Pidge’s eyes gleamed in the slightly unnerving way that meant that she was pleased with her own cleverness and wanted you to be too. “I finally got that video game Lance and I bought working! I was just going to test it out before I let him know, but I may have gotten a little distracted. But since you’re here, do you want to see it?”

Allura stepped in obligingly, though she didn’t know quite what she was being shown. “What is a video game?”

Pidge pressed a few buttons on a strange glove. “Well. They’re electronic games, I guess, and generally you’re supposed to guide a character through some sort of story to achieve victory.”

“Like the training deck?” Allura asked.

“Kind of? They apparently help your hand-eye coordination or something, but mostly they’re just fun.” Pidge crossed her arms. “I know, I’m wasting time that I should be training. It’s not like it’s hurting anyone.”

She looked at Allura defiantly, fully prepared to fight for her choice of pastime. And while Allura’s first impulse was to oblige her, she had a point. The galaxy had been remarkably quiet recently. Allura had been making the paladins train more to make up for it, but they still had a certain amount of time to spend as they saw fit.

Allura made an executive decision. “May I try this video game?”

Pidge’s resulting grin was positively blinding. “Yeah! Here, let me start a new file for you. You need to see the story from the beginning.”

She pressed another button, and the screen went black. Symbols appeared at the bottom as a voiceover began to play. As Allura watched, a young boy’s father was killed by demons, and the boy swore revenge. He decided to undertake an epic quest to the demons’ realm to find the one responsible.

At last, the video faded away, replaced by a generic-looking black room with a blocky person in its center. When the figure didn’t move, Allura realized she was meant to take control. She looked down at the glove Pidge had shoved at her. “What do I do now?”

“Well, to move Dolon, you press this joystick in the direction that you want to go.” Pidge pointed, but Allura’s mind was on other things.

“Dolon? The narrator referred to him as Rinari,” Allura said.

“I mean, that’s his Japanese name, I think.” Pidge frowned. “But the subtitles all referred to him as Dolon.”

“That’s all very well, but I can hardly read Earthling. The universal translators only work for spoken language.” Allura was sure she’d already explained that.

“I can’t believe it. Anime was right, aliens really do speak Japanese,” Pidge muttered. Allura looked at her strangely. “Anyway, the thing is that the language for the subtitles and the one for the narration aren’t actually the same. They changed the protagonist’s name when they translated it, for some reason.”

“I’m so sorry,” Allura said. “I hadn’t realized the Earth had so recently undergone a civil war. No wonder you were so hesitant to take action against the Galra.”

Pidge’s confused look returned. “What? I mean, yes, there have been minor conflicts, but there hasn’t been a world war in like a century.”

“When Altean was divided into Raimon and Fala, it was because of a horrifying civil war that left each side unwilling to risk the other listening in on communications. It took decaphebes for tensions to cool enough to reunify the language.” Allura was lucky that any of the Altean royal family had survived, from what the history books said. “Did something similar not happen to split Earthling into ‘Japanese’ and ‘English’?”

“Not really? English and Japanese just developed in different places.” Pidge shrugged. “They could probably try to merge into one language, but that would just be confusing for everyone.”

“More confusing than having to conduct your planet’s affairs in two different languages?”

“It’s not like those are our only two languages.” Pidge thought about it. “I’m pretty sure between the five of us we speak four or five languages, and there are hundreds more on Earth.”

Allura had a horrible suspicion that she understood where this was going. Still, she wanted to give Earth the benefit of the doubt. “What about your government? What language does it use?”

“There is no one Earth government. Each country has to choose a language for itself.” Pidge seemed be enjoying correcting Allura’s assumptions.

Allura sighed. “That explains so much about you five.”

“Probably.” Pidge shrugged. “Right, back to the game.” She began pointing to buttons, explaining their functions. “You’re probably going to want infinite lives, since this is your first time playing, so you should start by touching your index finger to your pinky.”

Allura considered it, but she had no desire to be coddled. “No, that won’t be necessary. I believe I understand this game well enough.”

“All right…” Pidge seemed dubious. Allura leaned forward, intent on proving her wrong.

Soon enough, the figure on the screen was leaping about and slashing at demons with ease. “You see? It’s quite simple.” Allura’s gloating was undermined when she entered a room and found it empty. She looked to Pidge, wondering if perhaps the game was broken.

“Hey, you made it to the first boss!” Pidge’s smile held just a hint of schadenfreude. “So what you’ll want to do is – “

“I’m sure I can figure it out.” A demon materialized, taking up half the screen. “It can’t be any harder than piloting the castle.”

The demon’s attack pattern was simple enough to figure out. All Allura had to do was wait for an opening. She leapt in, ready to claim revenge for Dolon’s father, and watched as Dolon died horribly.

Her mouth hung open in shock. “If you want a hint…” Pidge began, only to cut herself off when Allura shot her a look. “Okay, yeesh, I’m just trying to help.”

The demon reappeared, and Allura turned back to the game, determined not to fail.

Three ignominious deaths later, red symbols filled the screen. Allura was sure they were some form of Earthling mockery. Pidge fought back a laugh. “It says ‘Game Over’,” she informed Allura helpfully.

“Thank you, Pidge.” Allura grit her teeth. She was not about to let some primitive Earth game get the best of her.

She’d lost track of how many times she’d lost by the time the monster lay dead at her feet. She took the glove off and shook out her hand. “There. That’s that, then.”

Dolon emerged into another generic room full of demons. “Well done!” Pidge said brightly. “You beat the first boss! Only three more to go.”

Allura’s eye twitched as she donned the glove once again. “Very well. How hard can it be?”

Several vargas later, Coran appeared in the doorway, looking worried. “Princess? There’s a distress signal coming from a nearby planet. Shall we investigate?”

Allura stood up and stretched. “Yes, of course.” She turned to Pidge. “Go on, get your armor. But don’t think I’ve forgotten about your game. I’ll be instituting mandatory sessions for all the paladins in the future. It’s an excellent way to improve your reflexes and strategy.”

Pidge blinked. A smile crept across her face. “Well, if you insist.” She dashed out the door, hopefully towards her hangar.

Allura nodded to Coran. “Now. What exactly is going on with this distress signal?”


End file.
